91^ 
IB7M5. 



THE 



ALASKA BOUNDARY L I N T^ ^^ '''■"^) 



BY 



THOMAS CORWIN MENDENHALL 



with map 



PROM 

THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY 

APRIL 18 9 6 






^ 



1896.] The Alaska Boundary Line. 517 



BESIDE THE STILL WATERS. 



Ah God ! To lie awake at deep of night, 

And hear the rain down-dripping overhead, 

And know that joy is quenched and hope is fled, 

And from all earth have faded glow and light ! 

Have mercy, Father! On my smarting sight 

Let dreamless sleep its grateful shadows spread ; 

Give me a while to rest as one who, dead, 

Can reck of nothing ! When the east grows white 

I will he strong, will bravely face once more 

This dry-eyed agony, not as of yore 

Soothed by swift-gushing tears ! Now, all my soul, 

All prayers, all yearning, but reach out and set, 

Athirst, ablaze, towards one receding goal — 

One hour's oblivion — to forget, forget ! 



My God, I thank Thee ! Ah, I cannot know 
By what still waters and what pastures green, 
Close maybe to those secret founts unseen, 
All human finding fathoms deep below, 
Whence life itself takes its mysterious flow. 
Thou hast my spirit led in sleep, to glean 
Healing and strength ! Grief lingers, yet its keen. 
Fine throb grows dimmer, fainter, in the slow 
Advancing dawn. A lark will soar and sing 
While still a tiny clod of earth may cling 
To her glad breast : and so, dear Lord, I too 
Rise from the ground, and, lifting up my voice, 
As golden morning flushes into view. 
Remember still, and yet rejoice — rejoice ! 

Stuart Sterne. 



THE ALASKA BOUNDARY LINE. 

" In endeavoring to estimate its char- which Russia ceded to the United States 

acter I am glad to begin with what is her entire possessions in America. The 

clear and beyond question. I refer to distinguished orator, whose address on 

the boundaries fixed by the treaty." that occasion was an exhibition of pro- 

These words form the opening of the found historical and geographical research 

magnificent speech of Charles Sumner in and far-sighted statesmanship which has 

the United States Senate in 1867, in ad- seldom been equaled, does not appear to 

vocacy of the ratification of the treaty by have suspected that by coming into pes- 



518 



The Alaska Boundary Line. 



[April, 



session of the great territory whose pur- 
chase he so ably advocated the United 
States would find itself involved, a quar- 
ter of a century later, in two controver- 
sies, both with Great Britain, one of 
which should concern what he then de- 
clared to be " clear and beyond question." 
What is generally known as the " Be- 
ring Sea controversy," but which might 
be called with greater propriety the " fur 
seal controversy," has had its beginning, 
unfortunately not its end, within the last 
decade. In Sumner's day notliing was 
known which indicated the possible exist- 
ence of conditions such as have given rise 
to this dispute. It is a little difficult to 
understand, however, that so able a dip- 
lomat as Sumner could have studied the 
definition of the boundaries of the new 
territory as found in the treaty of ces- 
sion without seeing therein the seed of 
future complications with the English na- 
tion. That he began by assuming the 
boundaries to be " beyond question " must 
have been due in large measure to the fact 
that, as far as related to the land lines, 
they were turned over to us exactly as 
they had been agreed upon by treaty of 
Russia with Great Britain more than for- 
ty years earlier, during which period no 
controversy over them had arisen. He 
was awai'e, of course, of the controver- 
sies between Russia and both the United 
States and Great Britain, in the first 
quarter of the century, regarding territo- 
rial and maritime rights and privileges, 
but the vagueness, in certain important 
respects, of the English-Russian treaty of 
1825 does not seem to have impressed 
itself upon him. As a matter of fact, the 
superior importance of southeast Alaska, 
which is the only part whose boundary is 
likely to be in controversy, was not gen- 
erally recognized at that time, and reli- 
able information about the whole was so 
scanty that little attention was likely to 
be given to mere " metes and bounds." 
Since the occupancy of this part of the 
territory by Americans and its fairly full 
exploration by government officers, its 



importance has been admitted by us and 
recognized by the English to the end that 
the boundary line dividing it from Brit- 
ish Columbia and the Northwest Terri- 
tory bids fair to become a matter of dis- 
pute between the two nations, and one 
of no mean proportions. Though not of 
such a nature as to demand immediate 
settlement, it is not unlikely that it may 
be involved with two or three other ques- 
tions at present pending, and about which 
not only diplomats, but the people gener- 
ally have been, and are, deeply concerned. 
The Alaska boundary line is quite worthy 
of sejiarate consideration on its own ac- 
count, and it will be a misfortune if any 
ill-considered act shall result in its being 
merged with other questions of really less 
importance, and subjected to the by no 
means uncertain chances of arbitration. 

In the treaty which determined the ces- 
sion of the Russian possessions in North 
America to the United States, concluded 
March 30, 1867, the geographical limits 
(on the east) of the territory transferred 
are defined as follows : — 

" The eastern limit is the line of de- 
marcation between the Russian and the 
British possessions in North America as 
established by the convention between 
Russia and Great Britain of February 
28, 1825, and described in Articles III. 
and IV. of said convention in the follow- 
ing terms : — 

" Commencing from the southernmost 
point of the island called Prince of Wales 
Island, which point lies in the parallel 
of 54° 40' north latitude, and between the 
131st and 133d degree of west longi- 
tude (meridian of Greenwich), the said 
line shall ascend to the north along the 
channel called Poi'tland Channel as far 
as the point of the continent where it 
strikes the 56th degree of north latitude ; 
from this last-mentioned ])oint the line 
of demarcation shall follow the summit 
of the mountains situated parallel to the 
coast as far as the point of intersection 
of the 141st degree of west longitude (of 
the same meridian), and finally, from said 



1896.] 



The Alasha Boundary Line. 



519 



point of intersection, the said meridian 
line of the 141st degree, in its prolonga- 
tion as far as the Frozen Ocean. 

"IV. With reference to the line of 
demarcation laid down in the preceding 
article, it is understood : — 

"1st. That the island called Prince of 
Wales Island shall belong wholly to Rus- 
sia (now, by this cession, to the United 
States). 

"2d. That whenever the summit of 
the mountains which extend in a direc- 
tion parallel to the coast from the 56th 
degi'ee of north latitude to the point of 
intersection of tlie 141st degree of west 
longitude shall prove to be at the dis- 
tance of more than ten marine leagues 
from the ocean, the limit between the 
British possessions and the line of coast 
which is to belong to Russia^ as above 
mentioned (that is to say, the limit to 
the possessions ceded by this convention), 
shall be formed by a line parallel to the 
winding of the coast, and which shall 
never exceed the distance of ten marine 
leagues therefrom." 

Nearly all boundary-line treaties have 
been found more or less faulty in con- 
struction when subjected to rigorous tests 
such as are sure to come sooner or later. 
This is doubtless to be attributed in a 
great degree to the fact that they are 
usually framed by politicians rather than 
by geographers ; the advice of the latter 
being often ignored. The political dij^lo- 
mat is generally possessed by a smgle 
dominant idea in entering into a conven- 
tion, to which all others must be suboi'di- 
nate, and to the realization of which all 
other features of the treaty must lead. 

The convention of 1824 between the 
United States and Russia, and that of 
1825 between Russia and Great Britain 
(in which are to be found the boundary- 
line articles quoted above), were the re- 
sult of a determination on the part of the 
two English-speaking nations to break 
down the Russian Emperor's ukase of 
1821, in which territory extending as low 
as 51° north latitude was claimed by Rus- 



sia, as well as complete jurisdiction over 
nearly all water north of this line, thus 
threatening the fishing and whaling in- 
terests and the carrying-trade of both 
nations. The limitation of Russian pos- 
sessions to that part of the coast above 
54° 40' north latitude and the grant- 
ing of certain maritime privileges for a 
limited time were the principal results 
sought after and accomplished, and un- 
questionably little thought was given to 
the definition of a boundary line which 
traversed a region esteemed to be of lit- 
tle value, either present or prospective. 
In consequence of this indifference and 
the apparent absence of geographical in- 
stinct in framing the treaty, we have an 
agreement through which it is now pro- 
posed to '" drive a coach and six " in the 
interests of the ever aggressive and per- 
sistently expanding British Emjjire. 

It is therefore important for intelli- 
gent Americans to understand the weak- 
ness of the articles of agreement upon 
which our Alaska boundary claims are 
assumed to rest. They can best be con- 
sidered in the order of definition in the 
treaty. 

In the first paragraph is found the not 
uncommon but always imfoi-tunate error 
of " double definition," or rather, in this 
particular case, of attempting to fix an 
astronomical position by international 
treaty. It could not be known in 1825, 
and, as a matter of fact, it is not now 
known, that the southernmost point of 
Prince of Wales Island is on the paral- 
lel of 54° 40' of north latitude, for it is 
almost absolutely certain not to be on 
tliis parallel. No harm comes from this, 
however, as in a subsequent article (IV.) 
the possibility of this definition resulting 
in a divided jurisdiction over the lower 
extremity of that island is prevented by 
the provision that the whole island shall 
belong to Russia (now to the United 
States). The incident is quite worthy of 
note, however, as illustrating the claim 
that the dominant idea teas the 54° 40' 
line. The prominence of this idea, in- 



520 



The Alaska Boundary JAne. 



[April, 



14t- 140- 
Mt.St.Elias 



138° 




SKETCH-MAP OF SOUTHEAST ALASKA. 
Showing Points in Controversy, and the Boundary Lines as drawn on OflScial Maps of the United States and Canada. 

deed, in the minds of the several powers 



was so great as to give rise to the second 
ambiguity in thehoundary-line definition, 
which follows immediately upon the heels 
of the first. The description says, " Com- 
mencing from the southernmost point " 
(Cape Muzon), etc., "the said line shall 
ascend to the north along the channel 
called Portland Channel." Now, an ex- 
amination of the sketch-map of Alaska, 
shown above, will make it clear that, 
beginning with the point of departure 
as defined above, one must proceed to 



the east for about fifty miles in order 
to reach the entrance of Portland Chan- 
nel, or Portland Canal, as it is often 
called. On the absence of anything in 
the treaty in reference to this eastward 
line has been founded a claim that the 
use of the name " Portland Channel " is 
an error, an oversight, and that the line 
was meant to be drawn by turning to the 
north as soon as ])0ssil)le, which would 
be after passing Cape Chacon, the east- 
ernmost of the two capes at the southern 
extremity of Prince of Wales Island, and 



1896.] 

" ascending to the north " through Clar- 
ence Strait and Behni Canal, and finally 
intersecting the 56th parallel of north 
latitude in Burroughs Bay. The effect 
of this would be to throw the whole of 
the great Revilla-Gigedo Island, togethfer 
with a large territory between that and 
Portland Canal (all of which has been 
almost universally recognized as belong- 
ing to Alaska), over to the British side. 
Preposterous as is this claim, it has for 
some years received official support at 
the hands of the Canadian authorities, 
who have so drawn the line on several 
of their official maps. It is found on a 
general map of the Dominion of Canada 
published by the Interior Department in 
1887, and it is drawn in the same way 
upon what jJurports to be a copy of an 
official Canadian map of 1884 (accompa- 
nying Executive Document 146, Fiftieth 
Congress, second session), although an 
original, now before me, of same date 
and title, and with which the copy is al- 
most identical in other respects, exhibits 
the line as following the Portland Canal, 
in accord with the traditional claims of 
the United States. In recent English dis- 
patches it has been announced that new 
facts relating to the treaty have been 
discovered which greatly strengthen the 
later Canadian interpretation of this part 
of the line, but it is hardly to be be- 
lieved that English diplomats will con- 
sider this line in any other light than as 
affording excellent material with which 
to " trade " in convention, or on which to 
' " yield " in arbitration. 

, On entering the mouth of the Port- 
land Channel, which is struck almost in 
the centre by the 54° 40' line, we meet 
with another claim of comparatively re- 
cent date. Just to the north of what must 
be admitted to be the real entrance to 
this channel are two considerable islands, 
Wales Island and Pearse Island. North 
of these is a narrow, dangerous channel 
separating them from the mainland, and 
joining Portland Canal above with the 
open sea. It is claimed that, admitting 



The Alaska Boundary Line. 



521 



Portland Channel, as laid down on the 
maps, to be the real channel referred to 
in the treaty, this comparatively narrow 
passage is a part of it, and the boundary 
line must be drawn through it so as to 
put Wales Island and Pearse Island on 
the Canadian side. This claim is not 
recognized on the official Canadian map 
referred to above, dated 1884, but it is 
upon that of 1887. It can have but lit- 
tle value, except when it comes to the 
" general scramble " which is evidently 
being prepared for. 

The Portland Canal presents another 
difficulty in the fact that it does not ac- 
tually reach the "56th degree of north 
latitude," as seems to be implied in the 
language of the treaty, and this has been 
used as an argument to prove that Port- 
land Channel was not really the channel 
through which it was originally intended 
to draw the boundary line. But this canal 
comes to within a very short distance of 
the 56th parallel, probably falling short 
of it by not more than three or four 
miles, and possibly by not more than a 
fraction of a mile. The Salmon and 
Bear rivers debouch into this canal at 
its head, and the bed of either may re- 
present the extension of the inlet to the 
56th parallel. In any event, it is a mat- 
ter of no great importance, as some sort 
of hiatus must necessarily exist in a line 
passing from the level of the sea to the 
summit of mountains. 

Altogether the most serious trouble is 
to be anticipated in the interpretation of 
that part of the treaty which defines the 
line as it is to be drawn from the head 
of Portland Canal to the 141st meridian 
of west longitude near Mount St. Elias. 

In Article III. the language used is 
that " from tliis last-mentioned point " 
(where Portland Channel sti-ikes the 56th 
degree of north latitude) '"the line of 
demarcation shall follow the summit of 
the mountains situated parallel to the 
coast as far as the point of intersection 
of the 141st degree of west longitude," 
etc. But as there was, apparently, even 



522 



The Alaska Boundary Line. 



[April, 



then a doubt as to the position if not 
the existence of such a range, the second 
paragraph of Article IV. was inserted, 
defining the distance of the line from 
the winding of the coast, in case the as- 
sumed mountain range might be found 
to run further from the shore than was 
then supposed. Although most interest- 
ed in the other features of the treaty, it 
is evident that British diplomacy, with 
its accustomed shrewdness, was looking 
after secondary as well as primary ques- 
tions, and was by no means disj^osed to 
trust to the possible meanderings of any 
little - known range of mountains, even 
though drawn upon the map by its own 
explorers. It was provided, therefore, 
that while the " summit of the mountains 
parallel to the coast " should furnish the 
boundary line whenever such line would 
be ten mai'ine leagues, or less, from the 
coast, if it should appear in the future 
that said mountains carried their sum- 
mits to a greater distance inland, then 
the line was to be drawn " parallel to the 
winding of the coast," and so as never 
to " exceed the distance of ten marine 
leagues therefrom." It is important to 
note that this article may be regarded as 
containing something stronger than a 
quasi-admission on the part of Great 
Britain that the strip of territory con- 
ceded to belong to Russia should be in 
width ten marine leagues from the coast 
line : it also implies that this is the maxi- 
mum width to which she will consent, 
and that there is nothing in the treaty 
to prevent her making it one league or 
half a league, if, in the future, she is able 
to do so and the mountains 2^a7'aUel to 
the coast do not stand in the way. 

When this treaty was made, and in- 
deed until a comparatively recent date, 
the charts of the region prepared under 
the direction of Vancouver were the most 
reliable at hand. One of them (it is like- 
ly to have been the French edition) was 
doubtless before the authors of the ar- 
ticles defining the boundary line. All 
show a well-defined range of mountains, 



running nearly parallel to the coast line, 
and removed from it by a varying dis- 
tance, sometimes as great as forty miles 
or more. It is now known, however, and 
has been known for several years, that the 
very regular and neatly drawn mountain 
ranges which Vancouver's map exhibits 
owe their origin to the imagination of his 
draughtsman more than to anything else ; 
that is, as far as their form goes. In- 
deed, it is probably just to say that they 
were intended only as conventional re- 
presentations of the fact that mountains 
were seen in almost every direction, and 
esijecially in looking from the coast to- 
ward the interior. Within the past few 
years many topographical maps have 
been executed, and many photographs 
have been made of these mountains as 
viewed from the summits of some of 
those which are accessible. Very ex- 
cellent views have been obtained from 
elevations of four thousand and five thou- 
sand feet, looking towards the intei'ior 
and extending far beyond any claim of 
the United States. These show a vast 
" sea of mountains " in every direction, 
generally increasing in elevation as the 
distance from the coast increases. Seen 
from a distance or from the deck of a 
ship at sea, they might easily create the 
impression of a range or ranges " par- 
allel to the winding of the coast." As 
a matter of fact, there is nothing of the 
kind, but only the most confused and ir- 
regular scattering of mountains over the 
whole territory, at least until the Fair- 
weather range, south of Mount St. Elias, 
is reached. Of course it is quite possi- 
ble to draw a series of lines from moun- 
tain summit to mountain summit, which 
would form a line parallel to the coast, 
or any other assumed line, but no one 
can deny that the language of the treaty 
implies a range of summits extending " in 
a direction parallel to the coast." As 
the mountains which actually exist cover 
the territory d(jwn to the water's edge, 
the logical application of the mountain- 
summit definition, if it is to be applied 



1896.] 

at all, is to draw the line from peak to 
peak along the seacoast, and this our 
friends on the other side have not hesi- 
tated to-do. It is so drawn on the offi- 
cial Canadian map dated 1887, and also 
by Dr. G. M. Dawson, director of the 
Dominion Geological Survey, on his map 
submitted to show proposed conventional 
boundary lines. Naturally, this line, in 
common with all recently drawn maps 
of the Canadian government, practically 
leaves little to us except the group of 
islands lying off the mainland. While 
nominally allowing us a narrow strip, 
which is perhaps not quite all covered 
by high tides, it makes several short cuts 
which serve to break the continuity of 
our coast line, and to give considerable 
seacoast to British Columbia. 

Against the mountain-summit theory, 
the contention of the United States is, 
or should be, that as it is unquestionably 
proved that no such range of mountains 
exists as was shown on the charts of Van- 
couver, and as the high contracting par- 
ties evidently had in mind when they 
agreed to the treaty, it becomes neces- 
sary to fall back upon the alternative de- 
finition, which places the line " parallel to 
the winding of the coast," and not more 
than ten marine leagues distant there- 
from. It may be claimed that this was to 
have application only in localities where 
the range of " mountains parallel to the 
coast " was more than ten marine leagues 
from the coast, and that it vanishes when 
said range disappears. In reply it may 
be said that there are indications strong- 
ly pointing to the actual existence of 
such a range far beyond the boundary 
limit towards the interior ; but even if it 
be finally known that no such range ex- 
ists, either more or less than ten marine 
leagues from the sea, the intent of the 
agreement can be distinctly proved ; and 
in the impossibility of executing one of 
its provisions, an alternative, specially 
provided for the failure of that one, must 
be accepted. 

But as soon as we suggest that both the 



The Alaska Boundary Line. 



523 



spirit and the letter of the treaty would 
be satisfied by drawing the line ten ma- 
rine leagues from the coast, we are met 
with some astounding arguments as to 
what is meant by the coast. A well- 
known English authority has contended, 
in effect, that the coast line from which 
this distance should be measured should 
be drawn tangent to, and so as to include, 
the islands lying along the coast. The 
effect of this would be practically to ex- 
clude us from the mainland, and to throw 
valuable parts of the islands themselves 
over to the Canadian side. In the face 
of the plain statement that the line is to 
be drawn " parallel to the winding [si- 
nuosites'] of the coast," it is not believed 
that this point can be seriously urged. 

Should it be found possible to project 
a line satisfactory to both parties, from 
Dixon's Entrance, at some point of which 
it must begin, to the region of the Mount 
St. Ellas Alps, there will be no difficulty 
in agreeing upon the remainder of the 
boundary. Fi'om the point where it 
strikes the 141st meridian west longitude 
it is to be extended along that meridian 
" as far as the Frozen Ocean." Since it 
is an astronomical line, its position can be 
ascertained as accurately as circumstances 
require. 

In order to remove a not uncommon 
but erroneous impression that the Alaska 
boundary line is now, and has been for 
some time, in a state of adjudication, it 
may be well to say that thus far nothing 
has been done except to execute such 
surveys as have been thought desirable 
and necessary for the construction of 
maps, by which the whole subject could 
be properly presented to a joint boun- 
dary - line commission whenever such 
should be appointed, and on which the 
location of the line could be definitively 
laid down if a mutual agreement should 
be reachedo Such a survey was first 
brought to the attention of Congress in 
a message of President Grant in 1872. 
It was not until 1889, however, that the 
work was begun by the United States 



524 



The Alaska Boundary Line. 



[April, 



Coast and Geodetic Survey, which sent 
two parties to the valley of the Yukon, in 
the vast interior of the territory, with 
instructions to estahlish camps, one on 
that river, and the other on its branch 
the Porcupine, both to be as near the 
141st meridian as possible. These par- 
ties were to carry on a series of astro- 
nomical observations for the purpose of 
determining the location of the meridian, 
to execute such triangulation and topo- 
graphical surveys as were necessary for 
its identification, and to establish perma- 
nent monuments as nearly as might be 
upon the meritlian line. 

They remained at their posts, under 
stress of weather and other unfavorable 
conditions, for two years, during which 
their work was done in a manner quite 
sufficient for any demands ever likely to 
be made upon it. The two roost impor- 
tant points on the boundary, where it in- 
tersects the two great rivers named above, 
were thus determined, and a year or two 
later the position of the boundary merid- 
ian in relation to the summit of Mount 
St. Elias was established. It is difficult 
to see what more will be required for a 
long time to come, as far as relates to 
this part of the boundary line. In south- 
east Alaska, where all the uncertainties 
as to definition of the boundary line exist, 
peculiar and in a certain sense insuper- 
able obstacles are met with in the actual 
survey or " running " of a line in the or- 
dinary sense. In nearly all of the pro- 
posed routes most of the line passes 
through a region practically inaccessible, 
or at least not accessible without the ex- 
penditure of enormous sums of money 
and many years of time, wholly dispro- 
portionate to the end to be gained. To 
attempt to make anything like a detailed 
topographical survey of the wide region 
covered by the several claims, of suffi- 
cient accuracy to satisfy the conditions, 
and to " run " a line wherever it should 
finally be located, would involve labor 
and expense impossible to estimate in 
advance, but sure to be extraordinarily 



great. In view of these facts, it was 
determined to make such a survey as 
would enable a boundary-line commission 
to fix upon any one of several " conven- 
tional " lines which had been suggested 
already as satisfactory substitutes for 
that of the treaty, now generally admit- 
ted to be impossible of realization. In 
July, 1892, an agreement was entered 
into between the United States and Great 
Britain for the execution of a joint or 
coincident survey of this region, for boun- 
dary - line purposes. It was agreed by 
the connnissioners appointed to make 
this survey to cany out, in effect, the 
plan mentioned above. Astronomical 
stations were to be established at the 
mouths of the principal rivers which flow 
across the boundary line, namely, at the 
head of Burroughs Bay, the mouths of 
the Stikine and the Taku, and the head 
of Lynn Canal. A series of triangles 
were to be run from these up the river 
valleys, until a point beyond the probable 
or possible location of the boundary was 
reached. Topographical sketches were 
to be made and a good deal of photo- 
graphic topogi'aphy was to be done, espe- 
cially by the Canadian parties. This 
plan, which was successfully carried out, 
received the approval of the Dejjartment 
of State, and the rej^resentatives of the 
two governments cooperated in its exe- 
cution. It is believed to have furnished 
all information, besides what had been 
previously accumulated, necessary to a 
full discussion and a complete settlement 
of the controversy. One of the impor- 
tant results of this work has been the ac- 
cumulation of evidence, if indeed any 
were needed, of the impossibility of the 
" mountain-summit " line, and the conse- 
quent necessity of falling back upon a 
line at a measured distance from the 
coast. That this distance, in accordance 
with the spirit and intent of the treaty 
of 1825, should be practically ten marine 
leagues is apparent from the treaty itself 
and from contemporaneous history. It 
was evidently meant to convey, or rather 



1896.] 

to confirm, to Russia a " strip of the 
coast," complete and unbroken, from 
the parallel of 54° 40' north latitude to 
Mount St. Elias. The word lisiere used 
in the treaty to describe this strip, and 
which becomes "line" in the English 
version, means much more than that, be- 
ing originally equivalent to " border," 
" selvage," " fringe," or " list " of cloth, 
always standing for something of very 
detinite width and continuity. Contem- 
porary writers might be quoted, showing 
a common belief among Englishmen 
themselves that the treaty accorded to 
Russia a very detinite and continuous 
strip of the mainland, which, by cutting 
off direct access to the coast, " rendered 
the great interior of comparatively little 
value." 

In conclusion, the situation may be 
summed u\) as follows : — 

Our purchase of Alaska from Russia 
in 1867 included a strip of the coast 
(lisiere de cote) extending from north 
latitude 54° 40' to the region of Mount 
St. Elias. This strip was thought to be 
separated from the British possessions 
by a range of mountains (then supposed 
to exist) parallel to the coast, or, in the 
case of these mountains being too re- 
mote, by a line parallel to the windings 
(sinuosites) of the coast, and nowhere 
greater than ten marine leagues from the 
same. As the advantage of an alterna- 
tive line could hardly have been intend- 
ed to accrue to one only of the contract- 
ing parties, and as Great Britain would 
benefit by every nearer approach of the 
alleged mountain range than ten marine 
leagues, it must be inferred that the spirit 
and intent of the treaty was to give Rus- 
sia the full ten leagues wherever a range 
of mountains nearer to the coast than that 
did not exist. For more than fifty years 
there was, as far as is known, no claim 
on the part of Great Britain to any oth- 
er than this simple interpretation of the 
treaty, and up to a very recent date all 
maps were drawn practically in accord 
with it. Above all, it is clear, both from 



The Alaska Boundary Line. 



625 



the language of the treaty and from con- 
temporaneous history, tluit the strip of 
coast was intended to be continuous from 
the parallel of 54° 40' north latitude. 
The right of complete jurisdiction over 
this coast, exercised so long by Russia 
without protest from Great Britain, be- 
came ours by purchase in 1867. Since 
that date the development of the north- 
west has shown the great value of this 
lisiere. Its existence has become espe- 
cially disagreeable to Great Britain, be- 
cause through its waterways and over 
its passes much of the emigration and 
material supplies for her northwestern 
territory must go. The possession by 
us of the entire coast of North America 
north of 54° 40' to the Arctic Ocean is 
not in itself in harmony with her desire 
or her policy. The Alaska boundary- 
line dispute offers an opportunity to 
break the continuity of our territorial 
jurisdiction, and by securing certain por- 
tions of the coast to herself greatly to 
diminish the value of the remaining de- 
tached fragments to us. The wisdom of 
this from the Downing Street standpoint 
cannot be questioned. Those of us who 
desire to assist in its accomplishment 
have only to urge the importance of sub- 
mitting every controversy of this kind, 
no matter whether we are right or wrong, 
to the court of arbitration. Arbitration 
is compromise, especially when two great 
and nearly equally strong nations are en- 
gaged in it. No matter how much or 
how little a nation carries to an arbitra- 
tion, it is tolerably certain to bring some- 
thing away. Once before a board of 
arbitration, the English government has 
only to set up and vigorously urge all of 
the claims referred to above, and more 
that can easily be invented, and it is all 
but absolutely certain that, although by 
both tradition and equity we should de- 
cline to yield a foot of what we pur- 
chased in good faith from Russia, and 
which has become doubly valuable to us 
by settlement and exploration, our lisiere 
will be promptly broken into fragments, 



526 



Latter -Day Cranford. 



[April, 



and, with much show of impartiality, 
divided between the two high contracting 
parties. 

It is to be regretted that our share in re- 
cent important events has tended to lead 
us toward this end rather than away from 
it. We have thrust ourselves into a con- 
troversy over a boundary line on another 
continent, in which we can have no inter- 
est, except perhaps that which grows out 
of a very foggy and uncertain sentiment. 
We have assumed that a Eurojoean power 
is about to " extend its system " to a 
part of the western continent, or that 
England is on the point of " oppress- 
ing " the people of a South American 
republic, or of " controlling the desti- 
ny " of their goverimient. Against this 
we have made an active and aggressive 
protest, and have clearly intimated that 
if Great Britain does not submit this 
boundary question to arbitration we shall 
make trouble. In so doing we have 
once more put ourselves exactly where 
far-sighted English statesmanship would 
have us. Under ordinary circumstances 
our attitude on this question would be 
considered as almost an offense, and the 
channels of diplomatic correspondence 



would not be as clear and uninterrupted 
as they now are. 

The truth is that Great Britain is 
meeting our wishes in this matter with 
almost indecent haste, because the arbi- 
tration of the Alaska boundary line, by 
which she hopes and expects to acquire 
an open seacoast for her great northwest 
territories, and to weaken us by breaking 
our exclusive jurisdiction nortli of 54° 
40', is enormously more important to 
her than anything she is likely to gain or 
lose in South America. Having driven 
her to accept arbitration in this case, it 
will be impossible for us to refuse it in 
Alaska, and we shall find ourselves again 
badly worsted by the diplomatic skill of 
a people who, as individuals, have de- 
veloped intellectual activity, manliness, 
courage, unselfish devotion to duty, and 
general nobility of character, elsewhere 
unequaled in the world's history, but 
whose diplomatic policy as a nation is 
and long has been characterized by ag- 
gressiveness, greed, absolute indifference 
to the rights of others, and a splendid 
facility in ignoring every principle of jus- 
tice or international law whenever com- 
mercial interests are at stake. 

T. C. Mendenhall. 



LATTER-DAY CRANFORD. 



It is the eccentric dower of some to 
gi'ow quite as hot-headed and tremulous 
over a prospective needle in a haymow 
as ever Midas could have been on re- 
ceiving his gift. To such. Knutsford, in 
Cheshire, offers a perfect hunting-ground 
for that sort of plunder so humorous- 
ly resembling Gratiano's reasons: "You 
shall seek all day ere you find them ; 
and when you have them, they are not 
worth the search." No more satisfying 
occupation can be invented in this an- 
cient world than the pursuit of what does 
not absolutely exist, if only the hunter 



be just credulous enough ; bold in belief, 
yet " not too bold." He must cling to 
his guesswork with a dauntless zeal ; at 
the same time, he shall, for his own ease, 
recognize the probable futility of such 
doggedness. For to reconstruct a habi- 
tation on the base of some foregone ro- 
mance is to strike a balance between spe- 
cial disappointment and a vague general 

joy- 

The present Knutsford, in toto, is 
emphatically not the Ci-anford of Mrs. 
Gaskell's homely chronicle, but it glit- 
ters with links of similitude ; moreover. 



THE ATLANTIC 
MONTHLY 



DEVOTED TO 



Literature, Science, Art, and Politics 

VOLUME LXX VII.— NUMBER 462 



APRIL, 1896 

Page 

THE OLD THINGS. I. -IV Henry James 433 

CHINA AND THE WESTERN WORLD Lafcadio Hearn 450 

THE FLUTE J. Russell Taylor 465 

OLD-TIME SUGAR-MAKING Rowland E. Robinson 466 

A SON OF THE REVOLUTION Octave Thanet 471 

AN ARCHER'S SOJOURN IN THE OKEFINOKEE .... Maurice Thompson 486 

SOME MEMORIES OF HAWTHORNE. Ill Rose Hawthorne Lathrop 492 

THE SCOTCH ELEMENT IN THE AMERICAN 

PEOPLE Nathaniel Southgate Shaler 508 

BESIDE THE STILL WATERS Stuart Sterne 517 

THE ALASKA BOUNDARY LINE T. C. Mendenhall 517 

LATTER-DAY CRANFORD Alice Brown 526 

THE CASE OF THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS: II. THE TEACH- 
ER'S SOCIAL AND INTELLECTUAL POSITION F. W. Atkinson 534 

THE PRESIDENCY AND SENATOR ALLISON 544 

THE NEW POE 551 

PAINTING, SCULPTURE, AND ARCHITECTURE 554 

La Farge's Considerations on Painting. — Hamerton's Imagination in Landscape Painting, — Florence 
Simmonds's Ricci's Antonio Allegri da Correggio. — The Writings on Art of Anna Jameson. — Cole and 
Van Dyke's Old Dutch and Flemish Masters. — Eugenie Sellers's Furtwangler's Masterpieces of Greek 
Sculpture. — Longfellow's A Cyclopaedia of Works of Architecture in Italy, Greece, and the Levant. 

COMMENT ON NEW BOOKS 569 

THE CONTRIBUTORS' CLUB 573 

Above the World. — A Book-Lover's Paradise. — Figliuolo Learns to ^pat}. , , , ,, , ,,, ,,, 



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THE 



ALASKA BOUNDARY LINE 



BY 



THOMAS OORWIN MENDENHALL 



FROM 
THE INDEPENDENT 
OCTOBER ^6 1899 



A Ballad of Hallowmass. 

By Clinton ScoUard. 

IT )iaijpc(] at the time of HiiUowinass. wlieu the dead may walk abroad, 
That the wraitb of Italph of tho peaceful hoart went forth from the courts of God, 
Went forth from the paradisial ways, from the paths? of asphodel. 
From the vistas veiled in a .eoldou haze where tlie souls of the sainted dwell; 
And as he passed he heard tiie peal of the summoning trumpet blown. 
And he saw the cloud of witnesses go wavering by to the throne; 
And earthward switt on a tide of joy and love he seemed to swim. 
For he thought of the hour wiien liis stahvait sons should go to the throne with him; 
When they should stand on his either hand who had been his pride on earth. 
And Icuow in the sigiit of the l^iving Light the bliss of a second birth. 

And so to tlie land he had called his own, to the realm he had ruled, he came. 

Where, under the spell of his gracious sway, grim war had been but a name, 

Where the Jierds had strayed on the liappy hills, and traffic roared in the mart. 

Where life had lost its cankering ills, for peace had flowered in the heart. 

But lo ! as he looked on the harvest fields, on the ways of tlie wide-wheeled wain. 

He saw wild masses of marching men sweep over the pillaged plain; 

He saw no flocks on the great green slopes, no kine in barn or byre. 

But the sheltering thatch of the farmstead roof liclced up by the tongues of fire; 

And the women's groans and the children's moans surged by him like a wave, 

And the cloudy reek of plundered towns where none was left to save. 

Then on he pressed to the seat of power in the crook of a broad sea bay. 

Where, under the frown of the bastioned walls, the lines of a leaguer lay; 

In he went to the tallest tent, and sat unseen at the board 

Where the fierce chiefs plotted the city's sack, each chief with his bared sword; 

He who sat at the council's head was the leaguer's grimmest one. 

And the dead King looked in his flery eyes and knew the man for his son. 

So forth he went from the tallest tent, b.v the leaguer's outmost guard. 

Till lie came to the moal and the mighty keep and the archway triple-barred; 

Not a warder's eye as he slipped by beheld the wraith of the King, 

And scarce, as he sped toward the castle gate, did he meet with a living thing, 

For Famine into the weedy .streets had come as a grizzly guest. 

And down from the pallid window-panes there peered the face of the Pest. 

He glided into the castle court, and on to the bancjuet-hall 

Wherefrom there echoed a mirthful rouse in iterant rise and fall: 

He looked within for a little space, then shrunk him back from the door. 

For he saw the face of his other son and a painted paramour. 

It happed at the time of Hallowmass, when the dead may walk abroad, 

Tiiat the wraith of Ralph of the peaceful heart went back to the courts of God; 

And a bittei-er anguish than was his few noble soids have known 

As he saw the cloud of witnesses go wavering down from the throne. 

He passed to the high and holy place, and straight to the feet of Him 

About whom stand in a shining band the saints and the seraphim: 

" I pray," he said, " that my soul may tread the dark of the outer way. 

That those I love may be borne above to the light of the living day; 

Send thou my soul to the utmost goal of night to dwell therein, 

Tliat they thereby may be raised on high from the awful pits of sin ! " 

But the Presence spake: " Remorse shall wake because of these words of thine 

Within the breasts of the recreant ones ere another day decline; 

And they shall win from the ways of sin, ere the span of their lives be through. 

Because of the love of a father's heart, and the deed that thou wouldst do ! " 

And so from the time of Hallowmass, when the dead may walk abroad. 

The soul of Ralph of the peaceful heart abode in the courts of God. 

Clinton, N. Y. 

2871 



The Alaska Boundary Line. 



By T. C. Mendenhall, 



President of Worcester Polytechnic Institute. 



DISPUTES over boundary lines have 
always been most difficult of settle- 
ment. Most nations are reluctant to 
i^ive up territory, even when it is apparently 
uf little value, immediate or prospective. 
The United States has been more nearly an 
exception to this rule than any other great 
nation. This is undoubtedly owing to the 
enormous extent of our original possessions, 
considered in relation to our comparatively 
small population. Because our territory has 
been generally far in excess of the demands 
of our people we have been indifferent and 
careless as to the disposition of outlying re- 
gions which have not, for the time, seemed 
of much concern to our welfai-e. Most of 
our controversies have been with a nation 
whose policy is always the exact opposite of 
this; a nation which promptly seizes all that 
comes within its reach, and never gives up 
a foot. In all of our boundary disputes with 
Great Britain we have been worsted; that 
is, we have yielded territory to which our 
claim was as good as hers and often better. 
It is to be regretted that our people have not 
been generally well informed as to the 
merits of these controversies and, especially, 
that they have not felt a greater interest in 
the outcome. We have been so busy in the 
occupation and development of the great in- 
terior that a few hundred square miles here 
and there of distant, unsettled regions have 
not seemed to be important. 

The boundary line between Alaska and 
British Columbia, now under discussion, is 
involved in peculiar difficulties. Its impor- 
tance has greatly increased within the last 
two or three years on account of the discov- 
ery and development of rich mining re- 
sources in its neighborhood. It ought to 
have been fixed long ago, and might have 
been with vastly less Irritation and friction 
than are now unavoidable. 

The desirability of coming to an agreement 
with Great Britain was long ago recognized 
2872 



by all who were familiar with the facts, but 
one administration after another has found 
itself so occupied with other, generally much 
less important, affairs that it was easier to 
postpone tlian to act. In 1891 and 1892, in 
official communications relating to this and 
other public business, forwarded to the then 
Secretary of State. Mr. Blaine, the pressing 
importance of a determination of this line 
was urged, and these letters were forwarded 
by him in regular course to Congress, to- 
gether with his approval of the suggestions 
they embodied. They received little atten- 
tion. This was prior to the discoveries of 
gold in the Klondike region and there is no 
doubt that a settlement might then have 
been reached with comparatively little effort. 

The difficulty is one which we inherited 
from Russia, and it arises primarily out of 
the unfortunate and ambiguous definition of 
the boundary found in the ti'eaty between 
Russia and Great Britain in 1825. When 
we bought Alaska in 1867 we bought that 
definition and all of the trouble to which it 
must necessarily give rise. All nations ought 
to have learned long ago that boundary lines 
sJiould he defined astronomicalUj. The latitude 
and longitude of any point on the earth may 
now be determined with almost any desired 
degree of precision. Natural boundary 
marks, such as rivers and mountains, al- 
though apparently meeting every require- 
ment, are far from satisfactory. Rivers 
change their courses; we have had disputes 
growing out of this fact, and we had a long 
controversy with Great Britain to determine 
which river was the St. Croix of the treaty. 
Mountains are erroneously named and often 
do not really exist as shown on an explorer's 
map. Much of the trouble over the Alaskan 
boundary has arisen out of confusions of this 
sort. English and American astronomers 
would never differ, sensibly, over the loca- 
tion of the 141st meridian. 

Fortunately a large part of the Alaskan 



The Alaska Boundary Line 



2873 



boundary line Is astronomical. It is that 
part Avhich proceeds from a point near the 
summit of Mt. St. Elias along the 141st me- 
ridian west of Greenwich to the Arctic 
Ocean. Over this there is no dispute, or if a 
dispute should ever arise it can easily be set- 
tled. The line separating what is known as 
Southeast Alaslia from British Columbia, be- 
ginning at the most southerly point of 
Prince of Wales Island and ending near the 
summit of Mt. St.. Elias, is the subject of the 
present controversy. 

The language of the treaty is as follows: 
" Commencing from the soutlieruraost point 
of the island called Prince of Wales Island, 
which point lies in the parallel of 54° 41' 
north latitude, and between the 131st 
and 133d degree of west longitude (meridian 
of. Greenwich), the said line shall ascend to 
the north along the channel called Portland 
Channel as far as the point of the continent 
where it strilies the 5Gth degree of north 
latitude; from this last mentioned point the 
line of demarcation shall follow the summit 
of the mountains situated parallel to the 
coast as far as the point of intersection of the 
i41st degree of west longitude (of the same 
meridian, and finally, from the said point of 
intersection, the said meridian line of the 
141st degree, in its prolongation as far as 
the Frozen Ocean." 

The first serious difficulty is to determine 
what is meant by " the channel called Port- 
land Channel." Our friends the enemy in- 
terpret this to mean that on leaving the 
southernmost point of Prince of Wales Island 
the line must be drawn at once to the north 
to the 5Gth parallel of north latitude, and 
this carries it to the west of the great Re- 
villa Gigedo Island into Burrough's Bay, 
thus throwing that island and a large block 
of the mainland under their jurisdiction. 
In order to enter what has always been 
known as Portland Channel it is necessary 
to proceed from the beginning at Prince of 
Wales Island straight to the east for about 
sixty miles, and then " ascend to the north 
along the channel," which Is the line we 
claim. The omission of this easterly line 
from the treaty opens the door for the Brit- 
ish contention, and to support It they main- 
tain that the use of the name Portland Chan- 
nel was an oversight. We contend, on the 



contrary, that the omission of the fifty or 
sixty miles of easting from the southernmost 
point of Prince of Wales Island is of no spe- 
cial importance because any one would un- 
derstand that before you could ascend along 
the channel you must get into it. On the 
56th parallel, therefore, the two claims are 
separated by the distance from Burrough's 
Bay to tlje head of Portland Channel, a mat- 
ter of about thirty-five miles. From this 
point until they come together near Mt. St. 
Elias they continue to be apart by about the 
same distance. Roughly, then, tliere is in 
dispute an irregular strip of territory about 
700 miles long, with an average width of 35 
to 40 miles, nearly three and a half times 
the area of the State of Massachusetts. The 
line contended for by the British follows 
the shore from Burrough's Bay to the mouth 
of the Stikine River, thence, still as close to 
the shore as it can be shown upon an ordi- 
nary map, to the Taku Inlet, which it crosses 
at the southei'n end ana then, turning to the 
west, it crosses Lynn Canal, leaving all of 
that splendid estuary on the Canadian side, 
iikoAvise the wonderful Glacier Bay, with its 
famous Muir Glacier, going straight for the 
Fairweather Mountains, which it follows to 
Mt. St. Elias. This claim is based on the 
next phrase of the treaty, which declares 
that after leaving Portland Channel " the 
line of demarcation shall follow the summit 
of the mountains situated parallel to the 
coast as far as the point of intersection of 
the 141st degree of west longitude, etc." On 
the old chart bj' Vancouver on which the 
treaty was based, a range of mountains par- 
allel to the coast and situated about thirty- 
five miles back from the shore is shown, 
the summits l)eiug beautifully arranged in a 
continuous chain. Undoubtedly such a range 
was supposed to exist at that time, but the 
English diplomats who framed the treaty 
with Russia evidently suspected that its po- 
sition might not be shown correctly on Van- 
couver's map, and fearing that it was really 
further inland than it there appeared they 
thought it wise to insert a modifying clause 
by which Russia could be prevented from 
getting too wide a strip of the western coast. 
The nearer the supposed range of mountains 
was to the shore line the better for them, so 
they did not propose to limit its position on 



2874 



The Independent 



that side, but lest it should stray too far 
to the east they shrewdly provided as fol- 
lows: "That whenever the summit of the 
mountains which extend in a direction paral- 
lel to the coast from the 56th degree of north 
latitude to the point of intersection of the 
141st degree of west longitude shall prove to 
be at the distance of more than ten marine 
leagues from the ocean, the Hmit between 
the British possessions and the line of coast 
which is to belong to Russia, as above men- 
tioned (that is to say, the limit of the posses- 
sions ceded by this convention) shall be 
formed by a line parallel to the winding of 
the coast, and which shall never exceed the 
distance of ten marine leagues therefrom." 

Now the American contention is that there 
is no such range of mountains parallel to 
the coast; mountains there are in plenty; 
Southeast Alaska is covered with them, but 
they are scattered about in absolute irregu- 
larity; generally increasing in hight toward 
the east, but nowhere simulating a " range " 
even approximately lilie that shown on Van- 
couver's chart. This being the case, it is 
contended that it is necessary to fall bacli 
upon the alternative definition of the line in 
which the intent of the language of the 
treaty is clearly that Russia should be pos- 
sessed of a strip ten marine leagues (about 
thirty-five miles) in width, counting from 
the " winding of the coast." The line 
claimed by us is drawn upon this assump- 
tion. Mountains being extremely numerous 
all over this strip of territory, the English 
have no difficulty in drawing their line from 
peali to peak so that it shall practically fol- 
low the water's edge, and this, they claim, 
is following " the summit of the mountains 
situated parallel to the coast." 

Of course there is much involved in this 
controversy besides the mere question of 
square miles of territory. The really serious 
object of Great Britain is to secure one or 
more seaports and access to the interior 
without coming under American .iurisdiction, 
which means the breaking of the contin- 
uity of our coast line so that instead of con- 
trolling, practically, the entire western coast, 
except that part from Cape Flattery to 54° 
40' north latitude, which we gave up to 
her in 1840, our jurisdiction as far as Mt. St. 
I'jlias will be over a series of disconnected 



fragments. It will bo seen from the above 
brief statement of the case that, considering 
the literal interpretation of the treaty as it 
stands, the affair is one of much perplexity, 
and that it is by no means one-sided. The 
phrase, " following the summit of the moun- 
tains situated parallel to the coast," is, it 
must be confessed, of uncertain meaning. 
It does not say the ranf/e of mountains par- 
allel to the coast. If it did the meaning would 
be clear, but on the other hand it may be 
fairly claimed that raixje is implied; other- 
wise there is the manifestly absurd assump- 
tion that mountains, or a moimtain, may be 
situated parallel to the coast. 

In the face of this ambiguity we may fall 
baclv upon a generally accepted principle in 
boundary disputes that continuous occupa- 
tion of territory or undisputed recognition of 
a line shall have a determining effect. It 
cannot be denied that up to a comparatively 
recent date, about 1887, the line was drawn 
upon English maps essentially as upon those 
of Russia, or upon our own, and thex'e is 
much evidence to show that this ime was 
what was meant in the treaty. Before 
Alaska came into our possession there was a 
strong feeling among Canadians that this 
strip, now known as Southeast Alaska, 
ought to belong to Great Britain, but it was 
not held that it was hers in virtue of the 
treaty. In illustration of this I will make a 
few quotations from a prominent Canadian 
newspaper printed in 1803, shortly after the 
finding of gold in the sands of the Stikine 
River, a discovery which was thought at the 
time to be of much importance: 

" It is certainly not acceptable . . . that 
the business of such a highway should reach 
the interior through a Russian door of thirty 
miles of coast. . . . It is clearly undesira- 
ble that the strip thi*ee hundred miles long 
and thirty miles wide, which is only used by 
the Russians for the collection of furs and 
walrus teeth, shall forever control the en- 
trance to our very extensive northern terri- 
tory. . . . The strip of land which 
stretches along from Portland Canal to Mt. 
St. Elias with a breadth of thirty miles and 
which, according to the treaty of 1825, forms 
a part of Russian America, must eventually 
become the property of Great Britain." 

It is important to note in these extracts. 



Notes of an Itinerant Policeman 



2875 



and many others similar in strain could be 
quoted, the admission of practically every- 
thing now claimed by us— the Portland Ca- 
nal, the thirty miles widtli. and the fact that 
the treaty of 1825 made tliis the property of 
Russia. 

Naturally the thing for the United States 
to do was to stand by this interpretation, so 
long accepted by the English, and to declare 
that the territory was ours. We shall be 
compelled, liowever, to allow the matter to 
go into arbitration. If arbitration means a 
decision in accord with the principles of 
justice and eqiiity, we ought to welcome 
such a determination of the case. But in 
modern diplomacy arbitration means com- 
promise, and we may as well resign our- 
selves to the cutting in two of our Alaskan 
domain and the rupture of the continuity of 
our coast line. We are driven to arbitration 
by our own act of a few years ago when we 
" thrust ourselves into a controversy over a 
boundary line on another continent, in which 
we can have no interest except, perhaps, 
that which grows out of a very foggy and 
uncertain sentiment." This result was dis- 
tinctly foreseen more than three years ago, 
and predicted in an article printed in the 



AtUintlc Monthly for April, 189G, the closing 
paragraph of which is as follows: 

" The truth is that Great Britain is meet- 
ing our own wishes in this matter with al- 
most indecent haste, because the arbitration 
of the Alaslca boundary line, by which she 
liopes and expects to acquire an open sea 
coast for her great northwestern territories, 
and to Avealcen us by breaking our exclusive 
jurisdiction north of 54° 40', is enor- 
inously more important to her than anything 
she is likely to gain or lose in South America. 
Having driven lier to accept arbitration in 
this ease it will be impossible for us to re- 
fuse it in Alaska, and we shall find ourselves 
again badly worsted by the diplomatic skill 
of a people who, as individuals, have devel- 
oped intellectual activity, manliness, cour- 
age, unselfish devotion to duty, and general 
nobility of character elsewhere unequaled 
in the world's history, but whose diplomatic 
policy as a nation is and long has been char- 
acterized by aggressiveness, greed, absolute 
indifference to the rights of others, and a 
splendid facility in ignoring every principle 
of justice or international law whenever 
commercial interests are at stake." 

Worcester, Mass. 



Notes of an Itinerant Policeman. 

II.— THE HABITUAL CRIMINAL. 
By Josiah Flynt. 



IN appearance and manner the professional 
offender has not changed much in the 
last decade. I knew liim first over ten 
years ago when, making my earliest studies 
of tramp life, I saw him again five years 
ago while on a short trip in Hoboland, and 
we liave met recently on the railroads; and 
he looks just about as he did when we first 
got acquainted. 

Ordinarily he would not be noticed in 
mixed company by others than those ac- 
customed to his ways. He is not like the 
tramp whom practically any one can pick 
out in a croAvd. He dresses well, can often 
carry himself after the manner of a gentle- 
* Copyright, 189P, by The Independent. 



man, and generally has a snug sum of 
money in his pockets. It is his face, voice 
and habits of companionship that mark him 
for what he is. Not that there is that in his 
countenance which Lombroso would have 
us believe signifies that he is a degenerate, 
cougenitally deformed or insane, but rather 
that the life he leads gives him a look which 
tlie experienced observer knows as the 
'■ mug of a crook." lie can no more change 
tliis look after reaching manhood than can 
a genuinely honest man, who has never been 
in prison, acquire it. I had learned to know 
it, and had become practiced in discov- 
ering it long before I became a policeman. 
It took me years to reach the stage when In 



2876 



The Independent 



merely looking hurriedly at a criminal some- 
thing Instinctively pronounced him to be a 
thief, but such a time certainly comes to 
him who sojourns much in criminal en- 
vironment. There are, of course, certain 
special features and wrinkles that one looks 
for, and that htlp in the general sum- 
ming up, but after a while these are not 
thought of in judging a man, at least not 
consciously, and the observer bases his 
opinion on instinctive feeling. Given the 
stylish clothes to which I have referred, a 
hard face, suspicious eyes which seem to 
take in everything, a loitering walk, a pe- 
culiar guttural cough given by way of sig- 
nal, and called the thiefs cough, and a 
habit of lingering about places where a 
" sporty " constituency is usually to be 
found, and there is pretty conclusive evi- 
dence that a professional thief is in view. 
All of this evidence is not always at hand; 
sometimes there is only the cough to go by, 
but the circumstances being suspicious any 
one of them is sufficient to make an expert 
observer look quickly and prick up his ears. 

In New York City, for instance, there are 
streets in which professional thieves can 
be met by the dozen, if one understands 
how to identify them, and it is only neces- 
sary to p.iss a few words and they can be 
drawn into conversation. Some are dressed 
better than others— there are a great many 
ups and downs in the profession— and some 
look less typical than the more experienced 
men— it takes time for the life to leave its 
traces— but there they stand, the young and 
old, the clever and the stupid, for any one 
who knows hoAV to scrape acquaintance with 
them. They are tlie most difficult people in 
the world to learn to know well until one 
has mastered their free masonry, and then 
they are but little more fearful of approach 
than is the tramp. 

I devote a special chapter to their class 
because I believe that they are the least 
understood of all offenders, and also, as I 
stated above, because I consider them the 
real crux of the problem of crime in this 
country. The petty offender is comparative- 
ly easy to discourage, the backwoods crim- 
inal will disappear as our country develops, 
the born criminal, the man who says that 
he cannot help committing crimes, can be 



shut up indefinitely, but the professional 
criminal seems to baffle the criminologist 
as well as the penologist, and he probably 
does more financial damage to the commu- 
nity than all the others put together. He is 
the man that we must apprehend and pun- 
ish before crime in the United States will 
fail to be attractive, and at the present mo- 
ment it is its attractiveness which helps to 
make our criminal statistics so alarming. 

I have placed him third in numerical 
strength in my general classification, and 
1 believe this to be a correct estimate of 
the number of those who really make their 
living by professional thieving, but it Is 
thought by many, who do not discriminate 
in this particular, that he leads in the gen- 
eral criminal population. If those are to 
be included who would like to succeed as 
professional thieves and fail, and drop 
down sooner or later into the occasional 
criminal's class, the position I have given 
the so-called successful " professional " 
would have to be changed; but it has seemed 
best to confine the class to those who are 
rated successful, and on this basis I doubt 
whether an actual census taking, if it were 
possible, would prove them to be more nu- 
merous than I have indicated. Seeing and 
hearing so much of them on my travels I 
made every effort to secure trustworthy 
statistics in regai'd to their number, and as 
the bulk of them are known to the police, it 
seemed reasonable to suppose that, if I 
passed round enough among different police 
organizations, I ought to get satisfactory 
figures, but the fact of the matter is that the 
police themselves can only make guesses 
concerning the general situation, and I am 
unable to do any better. 

When putting queries concei'ning the num- 
ber of the offenders in question, my in- 
formants wanted me to differentiate and 
ask them about particular kinds of profes- 
sionals before they would reply. One very 
well informed detective, for instance, said: 
" Do you mean the whole push, or just the 
A No. 1 guns ? If you mean the push, why 
you're safe in saying that there are 100,000 
in the whole country, but the most of 'em 
are a pretty poor lot. If you mean the real- 
ly good people, 10.000 will take 'em all In." 
The cities which were reported to have 



OC TOr>Eli 2(>, 1899 

J- 

Survey of the World : 

Dewey in Washington —The Political Situation — Yacht Races — The Cuban Census — 
Venezuelan Revolution Battles in South Africa — French Army Reforms, etc 2855 

Colonial Administration for the United States . . Sir Godfrey Lagden 2861 

The Younger Writers of Norway Edmund Gosse 2862 

The Dreyfus Affair . Yves Goyot 2865 

A Ballad of Hallowmass (Poem) Clinton ScoIIard 2871 

The Alaskan Boundary Line Pres. T. C. Mendenhall 2872 

Notes of an Itinerant Policeman . Josiah Flynt 2875 

The Inauguration at Yale Dr. Kinsley Twining 2878 

Reform in the Consular Service Gaillard Hunt 2881 

The South African War .... An American Resident of Johannesburg 2883 

The Negro Child Mrs. L. H. Harris 2884 

The Good Old Way of Teaching Ascham FoIIansbee 2886 

A Wayside Family (Story) J. Edmund Vance Cooke 2888 

Helps and Hindrances to the Study of Life .... Prof. Lionel S. Beale 289 1 

Frederick Chopin E. Irenaeus Prime-Stevenson 2892 

Book Reviews : 

The Last Days of Rome— A Study of the Alcohol Question —Matthew Arnold - Search- 
Light Letters— The Archbishop's Unguarded Moment, and Other Stories, etc iL^^^ 

Editorials : 

The ProbI m of the Philippines —The New College Presidents— A Lesson From Canada- 
American Sympathy in the Transvaal -Campaign Contributions From Office Holders, etc. 2902 

Religious : 

Theological Contrasts in England and America . Rev. C. S. Macf arland 29 H 
The Lutheran General Council G. H. Gerberding 2913 

Financial, Insurance, etc 29 1 7 

Ten Cents a Copy = Two Dollars a Year 

130 FULTON STREET, NEW YpRfK ' 



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^^\ 



FIFTY-FOURTH ANNUAL STATEMENT 

NEW=YORK LIFE INSURANCE COMPANY^ 

Nos. 346 and 348 Broadway, New York City. 

JOHN A. HcCALL, - - = - President. 

BALANCE SHEET, JANUARY 1ST, 1899. 



ASSETS. 



United States. State, City, County and other Bonds 
(cost value $115,687,034). market value, Dec. 31, 1898.. . 

Bonds and Mortgages (777 first liens) 

Real Estate (68 pieces. Including ir? office buildings)... 
Deposits In Trust Companies and Banks, at Interest 
Loans to Policy-holders on their policies as security 

(legal value thereof. $16.(X)0.000) 

Loans on Stocks and Bonds (market value, t9,229.702). . 
I Stocks of Banks. Trust Companies, &c. (*4,532,086 cost 

I value), market value, Dec. 31,1898 

1 Premiums In transit, reserve charged In Liabilities 

Quarterly and Semi-Annual Premiums not yet due, re- 
serve charged In Liabilities 

Interest and Rents due and accrued 

Premium Notes on policies In force (legal value of 
policies, |;2,500,000 



*121,579,619 
39,00-2,758 
16,589,(100 
8,434,786 

9.818,600 
7,390.845 

6,050,881 
2,280,188 

2,087,274 
1,440,487 

1,.S20,423 



TOTAL. ASSETS $215,944,811 



LIABILITIES. 

Policy Reserve (per certificate of New 
York Insurance Department $175,710,249 

All other LlabllltleB: Policy Claims, An- 
nuities, Kndowments &c., awaiting 
presentment forpKymeut 



Additional I'olicy Reserve vol- 
untarily set aside by the Com- 
panv 

Surplus Reserved Funds volun- 
tarily set aside by the Com- 
pany 

Other Funds for all other con- 
tingencies. 



2,858,383-$178.069.6S2 



26,414,234 

t,.S19- :r?,876,179 



TOTAL LIABILITIES S215,»44,811 



CASH INCOME, 1898. 

New Premiums $7,644,715 

) Renewal Premiums 27,987,983 



TOTAL PREMIUMS $35,6:S,648 

Interest on: 

Bonds $5,740,819 

Mortgages 1,940,937 

Loans to Policy-holders, secured by re- 
serves on policies 628,638 

Other Securities 391,353 

Rents received 875,741 

Dividends on Stocks 221,780 



TOTAL, INTEREST, RENTS, «fcc. 



9,799.268 



TOTAL INCOME $45,431,916 



EXPENDITURES, 1898. 

Paid for Losses, Endowments and Annuities 

Paid for Dividends and Surrender Values 

Commissions ($3,,'i20,904.:«) on New Business of 
$152,093,369 ; Medical Examiners' Fees, and In- 
spection of Risks ($449,428) 

Home and Branch Office Expenses, Taxes, Adver- 
tising, E(iulpment Account, Telegraph, Post- 
age, Commissions on $791,927,731 of Old Business 
and Miscellaneous Expenditures 

Balance— Excess of Income over Expen- 
ditures for year 14,932,9«4 



$15,890,97S 
6,128,888 



3,770,332 



5,208,754 



TOTAL EXPENDITURES «45,431,91« 



INSURANCE ACCOUNT. 

ON THE BASIS OF PAID-FOR BUSINESS ONLV, 



NUMBER OF POLICIES. 



In Force, December 31, 1897. . 382,958 

New Insurance Pald-for, 1898. 73,471 
Old Insurances revived and 

Increased, 1898 835 

TOTAL PAID-FOR i 
BUSINESS j 
DEDUCT TERMINATION^!^ 
By Death, Maturity, Suiv 
render, Expiry, &c 33,380 



AMOUNT. 

$877,020,925 
152,093,869 

2,129,688 



407,*^«4, Sl,031,'^43,98'4 



87,222,862 



Paid-for Business in 
Force December 
31st, 1898 373,934 

I I Gain In 1898 40.976 

^ New Applications Declined In 1898 6,142 



«944,0ai,l«0 



$67,000,195 
15,986,836 



COMPARISON FOR SEVEN YEARS. 

(1891-1898.) 

Dec. 31st, 1891. Dec. Slst, 1898. Gain In Seven Years. 

Assets $125,947,290 $215,944,811 $89,997,521 

Income 31,854,194 45,431,917 13,577,723 

DivideniJs of 

Year to Policy 

Holders 1,260,340 

Total Pay- 
ments of Year 

to Policy 

Holders 12,671,491 

Number of 

Policies in 

Force 182,803 

Insurance 

in Force, 

premiums 

paid $575,689,649 $944,021,120 $368,331,471 



2.759.432 



21,519,865 



373,934 



1.499.092 



8.848,374 



191,131 



1 



Certificate of Superintendent of State of New York insurance Department. 

Albany, January 6th, 1899. 
I, LOUIS F. PAYN, Superintendent of Insurance of the State of New York, do hereby certify that the NEW-YOBK LIFE INSU B- 
ANCE COMPANY, of the City of New York, In the State of New York, Is duly authorized to transact the business of Life Insurance 
in this State. . ., 

I FURTHER CERTIFY that, in accordance with the provisions of Section Eighty-four of the Insurance law of the State of New 
York, I have caused the policy obligations of the said company, outstanding on the 31st day of December, 1898, lo be valued as per tne 
Combined Exoerlence Table of Mortality, at four per cent. Interest, and I certify the same to be $175,710,249. 
I FURTHER CERTIFY that the admitted assets are 

^218,844, ex X. 

THE GENERAL LIABILITIES, $2,3'58.383. THE NET POLICY RESERVE, AS CALCULATED BY THFS DEPART.MENT, $175,710 
249, MAKING THE TOTAL LIABILITIES PER STATE LAWS, 

^17 8,068.638. 

THE ADDITIONAL POLICY RESERVE VOLUNTARILY SET ASIDE BY THE COMPANY, 

1^2, 888, 626. 
THE SURPLUS RESERVED FUNDS VOLUNTARILY SET ASIDE BY THE COMPANY, 

^26,4X4,284. 

OTHER FUNDS FOR ALL OTHER CONTINGENCIES, 

^8,628.8X9. 

IN WITNESS WHEREOF. I have hereunto subscribed my name and caused- aiy official seal to be afUxed »t the City of Albany, the 
day and year flrtt above written. I_i^3XJTS F. IPAJTOi , 

-SUPKHINTKNDKNT OF iNSrKANCK ( ' 



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38 Nassau St., New York. 

CAPITAL, = = $1,000,000 
SURPLUS, = = $1,500,000 

Continuing the Business of the late firm of 

Messrs. flORTON, BLISS & CO. 



President, - 
\ ice- President, 
Second Vice-Pres. , 
Secretary, 



James W. Alexander, 
John Jacob Aster, 
George F. Baker, 
Edward J. Berwind, 
Frederic Cromwell, 
Henry M. F'lagler, 
G. G. Haven, 
Jos. C. Hendrix, 
Abram S. Hewitt, 



LEVI P. MORTON. 
E. J. BERWIND. 
J. K. CORBIERE. 
- W. R. CROSS. 

DIRECTORS. 

James N. Jarvie, 
Aug. D. Juilliard, 
Joseph Larocque, 
D. O. Mills, 
Levi P. Morton, 
Richard A. McCurdy, 
W. G. Oakman, 
John Sloane, 
William C. Whitney. 
A. Wolff. 



The Audit Company 

OF NEW YORK. 

Equitable Buildings {20 Broadway. 



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franUininillsFloiir 

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THE 



ALASKA B U N JJ A K Y L I W 



E 



BY 



THOMAS CORWIN MENDENHALL 



With map 



BULLETIN 

OP THE 

AMERICA^; GEOGRAPHICAL SOCIETY 

19 



128° 




SKETCH-MAP OF SOUTH-EAST ALASKA. 



THE ALASKA BOUNDARY LINE, 
An Address before the American Geographical Society", 

BY 

T. C. MENDENHALL. 

President of the Worcester Polytechnic Institute. 

A few years ago I had the pleasure of addressing the Society 
upon the Boundary Line separating Southeast Alaska from the 
British Northwest Territory, calling attention to the ambiguous 
and uncertain definition of the line in the treaty between Russia 
and Great Britain, in which it was originally defined, and predict- 
ing a controversy, the beginnings of which were even then in evi- 
dence. Since then, as everybody knows, this controversy has 
grown in magnitude and intensity until it has attracted the atten- 
tion of most intelligent people, and it is everywhere acknowledged 
to be of such importance as to justify a review of the situation at 
the present time. As a nation we have often been singularly negli- 
gent in the making of treaties involving delimitation of territory, 
and especially so in our intercourse with Great Britain, with which 
nation our territorial relations have been most intimate. Up to 
this time we have shown little, because we have felt little, of that 
spirit of "hold-fast," which has always characterized the diplo- 
matic policy of the English people. We have been so busy in the 
occupation and development of the great interior that a few hun- 
dred square miles here and there of distant, unsettled regions 
have seemed to us of little importance. A better understanding 
on the part of the masses of our people of the interests involved 
would do much to secure a more vigorous support of just claims 
on the part of our government authorities; and it is hoped that a 
dissemination of better information as to the nature of the present 
dispute will result in>a popular demand for a rigid insistence upon 
those claims. But it must not be assumed that the question of the 
Alaska Boundary is entirely one-sided. There are serious difficul- 
ties in the interpretation of the language of the treaty, and to some 
of these it will be well to give careful consideration. 

It is well known that in the purchase of this territory in 1867 it 
was conveyed to us in the language of the treaty between Russia 
and Great Britain, made in 1825. Whatever jurisdiction and rights 

67 



68 The Alaska Boinidary Li?ie. 

we may possibly claim now were those claimed and exercised by 
Russia from 1825 to 1867 — no more and no less. 

That part of the treaty which is responsible for the pending 
controversy is as follows: 

" Commencing from the southernmost point of the Island called Prince of Wales 
Island, which point lies in the parallel of 54° 40' north latitude and between the 131st and 
133d degrees of west longitude (meridian of Greenwich), the said line shall ascend to the 
north along the channel called Portland Channel as far as the point of the continent 
where it strikes the 56th degree of north latitude ; from this last-mentioned point the 
line of demarcation shall follow the summit of the mountains situated parallel to the 
coast as far as the point of intersection of the 141st degree of west longitude (of the 
same meridian) and finally from the said point of intersection, the said meridian line 
of the 141st degree, in its prolongation as far as the frozen ocean." 

The first apparent difficulty is the detennination of what is 
meant by "the channel called Portland Channel." The Canadians, 
many of them, have interpreted this to mean that on leaving the 
southernmost point of Prince of Wales Island the line should be 
drawn at once to the north as far as the 56th parallel of north lati- 
tude, and this carries it to the west of the great Revilla Gigedo 
Island into Burrough's Bay,* thus throwing that island and a large 
block of the mainland under their jurisdiction, although now 
claimed by us. In order to enter what has always been known as 
Portland Channel it is necessary to proceed from the beginning at 
Prince of Wales Island straight to the east for about sixty miles, 
and then "ascend to the north along the channel," which is the 
line we claim. The omission of a reference to this easterly line in 
the treaty opens the door for the British contention, and to support 
it they maintain that the use of the name Portland Channel was an 
oversight. We contend, on the contrary, that the omission of the 
fifty or sixty miles of easting from the southernmost point of the 
Prince of Wales Island is of no special importance, because it 
would be assumed that before you can ascend along a channel you 
must get into it. 

This point was strongly insisted upon for several years by Cana- 
dian authorities, but it has been practically given up as unreason- 
able and untenable, in the conferences of the ^oint Commissioners 
appointed a year or two ago. A far more serious claim is based on 
the next phrase of the treaty, which declares that after leaving Port- 
land Channel 

" the line of demarcation shall follow the summit of the mountains situated parallel 
to the coast as far as the point of intersection of the 141st degree of west longitude," 
etc. 

* Or Inlet. 



The Alaska Boundary Line. 69 

The charts of this region on which the treaty-makers principally 
relied were those of Vancouver, who explored the northwest coast 
in the interests of the British Government about one hundred years 
ago. Vancouver traversed the estuaries and followed the windings 
of the coast pretty thoroughly, but he did not go inland, all of his 
work being done, in fact, from the deck of his ship. On his charts 
a beautifully continuous range of mountains is shown, skirting the 
coast about 35 miles back from the shore. This range was proposed 
by the Russian diplomats as a suitable natural boundary. The 
English, however, were suspicious of the accuracy of Vancouver's 
map, and were especially concerned lest the range of mountains 
shown thereon should be found to be really further from the coast 
than 10 marine leagues. They cited the fact that they had only a 
few years before encountered difficulty in settling a boundary con- 
troversy with the United States, on account of the discovery that 
mountain ranges shown upon the map did not so exist actually upon 
the ground. They proposed that the line should be fixed at ten 
marine leagues, about 35 miles, from the windings of the coast, and 
it was finally agreed to insert the modifying clause, 
" that whenever the summit of the mountains which e.Ktend in a direction parallel 
to the coast from the 56th degree of north latitude to the point of intersection of 
the 141st degree of west longitude shall prove to be at a distance of more than ten 
marine leagues from the ocean, the limit between the British possessions and the line 
of coast which is to belong to Russia, as above mentioned, shall be formed by a 
line parallel to the winding of the coast, and which shall never exceed the distance of 
ten marine leagues therefrom." 

It is a fact of the utmost importance that the English repre- 
sentatives were willing to accept a line "always at a distance of 
ten marine leagues from the shore," and that they protected them- 
selves against a possible divergence of the supposed range of 
mountains to a greater distance inland. The extension of the line 
to the north along the 141st degree of longitude west of Greenwich 
is a simple astronomical problem over which there can be no dis- 
pute, and so the whole controversy is over the meaning of that 
part of the treaty which defines the boundary from the point where 
the Portland Channel meets the 56th parallel of north latitude to the 
141st meridian, which it intersects very nearly at the summit of 
Mount St. Elias. The superiority of English diplomacy is shown 
in the wording of the treaty so that, while the swinging of the 
mountain range inland beyond the ten marine leagues shall not 
carry the boundary line with it, if it should be found to be really 
less than that distance from the shore, the Russian holdings must 
be reduced accordingly. 



70 The Alaska Boundary Line. 

About ten years ago the United States began a survey for the 
purpose of definitely locating this boundary line. The first work 
was the establishment of astronomical stations on tributaries of 
the Yukon, to determine and mark at a few important points the 
141st meridian north of Mount St. Elias. About 1891 a survey of 
the lower part of the region traversed by the boundary was under- 
taken by the United States and Canada jointly, but it was agreed 
that the two parties should work independently of each other, so 
that more ground might be covered, each Government to receive 
the results of the work of the other. A large part of the work was 
topographical, especially that of the Cariadian parties. 

The result of this survey was to prove, at least to the satisfac- 
tion of those representing the American side of the controversy, 
that the range of mountains shown on Vancouver's map does )t 
exist, and that within the prescribed distance of ten marine leag .es 
there is no range of mountains in Southeast Alaska " parallel to 
the windings of the coast.'" Mountains there are in plenty, but 
they are scattered about in absolute irregularity, generally increas- 
ing in height towards the east, but nowhere simulating a range, 
except in the northern extremity of the territory under considera- 
tion, where is to be found the Fairweather range, and possibly for 
a short distance in the neighborhood of the White and Chilkoot 
passes. 

The American contention is, therefore, that in view of the failure 
of the first paragraph in its application to existing conditions, 
it becomes necessary to fall back upon the second and fix the 
boundary line at ten marine leagues from the shore, parallel to the 
windings of the coast. 

To this argument Canadians have replied that the phrase 
"shall follow the summit of the mountains parallel to the coast" 
is applicable to those mountains which are admitted to be generally 
but irregularly distributed over the stri]i of territory in dispute, and 
that the line should be laid down by joining the summits of those 
nearest the shore. The effect of the adoption of this principle 
is to place the line everywhere very near the coast, leaving almost 
nothing but the western mountain slopes to the United States, and, 
what is more important, interrupting at several points the con- 
tinuity of our coast line, giving to Great Britain many important 
estuaries, waterways and harbors. Indeed, it is clear in all of tjie 
negotiations that the primary object of Great Britain is to obtain 
coast line by which she may control admission to the interior. 

Recognizing the difficulty of interpreting this treaty, Americans 



The Alaska Boundary Line. 71 

h^ve very properly called to their support the doctrine of vested 
rights, accruing from continuous and undisputed and unmixed ozcw- 
pancy. Here it cannot be denied that everything is in our favor. 
From 1825 to 1867 the Russians claimed this territory, as we now 
claim it, without a word of protest from Great Britain. Not only 
Russian maps, but all maps drawn, up to a very recent time, showed 
the boundary where we believe it should be. All English charts so 
represent it. The Hudson Bay Company, an English corporation, 
leased from Russia a large part of this strip of land, following and 
adopting the boundary line as now claimed by us, paying an annual 
rental for its use. Before Parliamentary Committees the territory 
thus leased was defined and acknowledged by these maps, and in 
.numerous proceedings the Russian claim was admitted without 
^^uestion. Many important points were actually occupied by Russian 
Colonies, and none by British. 

After the United States assumed jurisdiction in 1867, the Depart- 
ment of State published a map showing the bounds of the newly 
acquired territory; many American enterprises were established 
within the now disputed area, some at the extremest points, all 
without a word from Great Britain ; and there was never an attempt 
to colonize this region by British subjects. Only a little more than 
ten years ago, when the value of the mineral resources of the region 
began to be understood, the first Canadian map was printed show- 
ing any other line than that now claimed by us. Even now Eng- 
lish maps, almost without exception, show the boundary line as it 
is found on our own maps, and as late as about a year ago the Scot- 
tish Geographical Magazine, an acknowledged authority on carto- 
graphy, published a very complete map of the whole region, with 
the boundary laid down in agreement with American claims. As 
to the absolute justice of these claims there can be no doubt in the 
minds of competent but unbiassed authorities. During the session 
of the Joint Commission the British Commissioners submitted a 
proposal to arbitrate the whole question in conformity to the terms 
of the Venezuelan arbitration, but they declined to consent to the 
■selection of an umpire from the American continent. The Amer- 
ican Commissioners proposed to submit the matter to a tribunal 
consisting of three judges of the highest standing in each country, 
a binding decision to be reached by at least four of these. This 
proposition, which must impress all as being eminently fair, was 
rejected by the British Commissioners, and no further attempt to 
reach an agreement was made by the Joint Commission. 

Through the ordinary diplomatic channels a tentative agreement 



72 The Alaska Boundary Line. 

has been reached, covering a small portion of the line in the neigh- 
borhood of the passes at the head of Lynn Canal, where most con- 
flict of jurisdiction has occurred, and a temporary relief from 
strained relations is promised. It will be but temporary, however, 
and it would have been safer and better if the United States had 
stood squarely for its contention in every detail. If once sub- 
mitted to arbitration the result would be a compromise, regardless 
of our real rights, and these are so clear that no concession ought 
to be made. 



The Society is not responsible for the opinions or the statements of writers in the Bulletin. 

BULLETIN 

OF THE 

American Geographical Society 

PUBLISHED FIVE TIMES A YEAR 

Vol XXXII. "No. 1, 1900 




CONTENTS 

PAGE 

Physical Geography of New York State. By R. S. Tarr, . - - i 

The Five Civilized Tribes ; Indian Territory. By C. H. Fitch, - 15 
Palestine as Illustrating Geological and Geographical Controls. By Reginald 

A. Daly, --------- 22 

A Dictionary of Topographic Forms. By Herbert M. Wilson, - 32 

Notes on Climatology. By Robert DeC. Ward, - - - - 42 

Notes on Anthropology. By Roland B. Dixon, - - - - 47 

Physiographic Notes. By Ralph S. Tarr, ----- 52 

Notes on Geographical Education. By Richard E. Dodge, - - 55 

Geographical Record, --.-----61 

The Alaska Boundary Line. By T. C. Mendenhall, - - . 67 

Map Notices. By Henry Gannett, ----- 73 

Accessions to the Library, - - - - - - - 75 

Book Notices, - - - - - -- - -78 

Obituary. W. H. Gilder, --..-. 84 

Notes and News, - - - - - - - -85 

Transactions of the Society : Commemoration of the late Charles P. Daly, 88 



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